Integrated billing saves bank from overpaying

A lack of automated reconciliation caused the bank to overpay premiums for short and long term disability plans. Unum’s HR Connect^® seamlessly integrates with ADP Workforce Now^® syncing data in real time, so bills are always accurate, with no time-consuming reconciliation. Enrollment is also a snap because Unum HR Connect syncs employee enrollment elections with Unum systems in real time, for an error-free enrollment with no manual data entry from HR.

When EagleBank adopted Unum HR Connect back in 2020, they had multiple reasons — but, according to Human Resources Director Jeff Hooton, one of the most important was: “We really did struggle over the lack of technology in the manual interface between coverage and billing.”

The most pressing issue for him involved a more than two-year period during which “the amount of money we overpaid was substantial, and it all had to do with the fact that there was no automated reconciliation,” Hooton said. The biggest problem arose from self-billing and trying to match up premiums for both STD and LTD. “The way you calculate short term disability premiums is different than how you calculate long term disability,” so their rates ended up being incorrect — and nobody told them.

As a result, Unum’s HR Connect integration for ADP Workforce Now was one of the most appealing factors to Hooton during his vetting process. “That was a major selling point.” Although they still take the time to reconcile invoices today, Hooton says “now we have a comfort level that what we’re reconciling is correct.”

According to Hooton, cost is “the primary driver in in any situation” but the HR Connect integration “was kind of icing on the top of the cake.” At the same time, many of the benefit consultants he worked with and regarded highly had stressed the importance of real-time benefits integration and also offered insight on “the quality customer service that Unum provides to their clients, so that was the tipping point” in making a decision. Hooton found that the integration experience went seamlessly, and that Unum’s staff “has been super responsive to the point where we’re now looking at the totality of the products you offer because I’m comfortable that you stand behind the service. Look at how our relationship has grown.”

With HR Connect, EOI is now embedded into ADP Workforce Now, which Hooton finds “fantastic.” “There’s a labor savings that I couldn’t quantify,” he says, “but in the past you had to separately send EOI out to the employees, get it to them and then look online to see when it was done. Having them directed right through open enrollment is a fantastic process. It worked out really well.”

With HR Connect, all the Unum products EagleBank offers are included in the integration. Without this integration, Hooton would have to return to reconciling these products on a monthly basis to make sure that the billing matches up. That’s something he doesn’t want to do, which leads to what he calls “the stickiness” of the product: “Once you try it on, you know it’s tough to get off. Build a good product. People will follow it.”